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The day...an expected but sad news came through!

At about 0200 AM on 13 October 2006, my mom's mobile cried aloud. The caller was dumbstruck in grief. My mom feared the unexpected had come true - She was right. The news about the death of my grandmother came through. She was close to 90 when she died. She was an Alzeimer's Disease victim and was on IV Infusion for the past week. The sad news made me get up from my cozy bed at an unconfortable 0230 AM. My job was to search and book tickets for my mother to fly to her home. It was Jet Airways' chance to fly my mom to kerala. I reserved tickets through their 24-hour call centre for 9W 401 which was to depart at 1015 hrs from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Terminus, Terminal 1B. The call centre was really helpful, and I thank them a million time! Kudos, and keep it up!

At about 0645, myself and my mom set towards on my ever beloved beast - my Qualis, fondly called as the Black Horse by my family members! The 2.4 litre engine of the beast could not wait to blast at the highway. But she had to wait as I drove through some narrow roads to fill her 51-litre tank and to withdraw cash to pay for the flight. The beast responded to my movements on the accelerator quite rapidly, and we were doing a very comfortable 110 kmph on the highway. We pulled into the Airport at about 0740, covering the 30-odd kilometre journey on 55 minutes (with two halts including filling up the tank, and at the ATM). I collected the tickets from the Jet Airways counter at Terminal 1B. Jet Airways has a seperate entry at the terminal. I and my mom sat outside the departure terminal for quite some time, reading a news paper and talking on world matters! At about 08:45, the opening of check-in was announced. My mom went in, and I went towards my car. I took the car and entered the Western Express Highway as I wanted to go to Thane, and preferred to drive via Sion. The road from the Airport to the Bandra (Kalanagar) junction was heavily congested and my beast could rarely manage 50-60 kmph. After Sion, the road was more-or-less empty, and she showed her powers and I cruised at 120 kmph. All signals at green, no humps and no rough patches did the magic - I reached my college at 0950, that is about 70 minutes after I left the airport covering a distance of about 50 kilometres. That was outstanding!During my return journey, I was too tired to enjoy my drive. I somehow reached my home, had some stuff to eat and slept off! I woke up at 0630 AM on the 14th!!! Thanks for reading - how is my beast guys???

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